A decade working for Blair and Brown taught me that Corbyn would lose. I’m so happy I was wrong

Ten years working for Tony Blair and Gordon Brown taught me that Jeremy Corbyn would lose heavily and Theresa May would walk it. I got it wrong. And I’ve never been so happy to be so completely wrong.

‘Corbyn’s campaign was optimistic. At times, wildly optimistic – or so it seemed to me’

Campaigns must be disciplined and ruthless: that’s what I learned. Stick to the soundbites. Control the media exposure. Viciously attack your opponent’s weakness. Keep punching the bruise. That’s what we used to do in the old days. And the Tories just showed you cannot re-run New Labour campaigns ten years after their sell-by-date.

Openness and optimism

In contrast to May, Corbyn’s campaign was open and optimistic. At times, wildly optimistic – or so, at least, it seemed to me. In a campaign bookended by the hard realities of Brexit and terrorism, the party’s manifesto was built on hope, not fear. That inspired a huge number of young people and Labour harnessed their enthusiasm to compete with a relentlessly negative media and huge Tory spending power. As the campaign wore on, even old hacks like me started to believe.

‘Corbyn is utterly invulnerable to personal attacks’

May ignored the three main lessons from the two Labour leadership contests: Corbyn is a campaigner; he makes his opponents look like politicians; and he is utterly invulnerable to personal attack. The Tory attacks were relentless but they were desperate. They had forgotten the first rule of political attack: whatever you say about your opponent says more about you. By contrast, Labour’s attack was light, nimble & smart: from the branding of the Tory social care policy as the ‘dementia tax’ to Corbyn’s last minute appearance at the debate, which helped cement the image of May as taking voters for granted.

I feel like I’m at the 1968 Olympics

I’m beginning to understand what it must have been like to be one of those old athletics coaches at the 1968 Olympics when they first saw this weird guy: Dick Fosbury. He didn’t run the way you were supposed to. He didn’t jump the way everyone taught it.

‘Let the Tories inherit the bitter infighting and leadership coups‘

Dammit, he didn’t even try to land on his feet: the crazy kid was jumping on to his back. But he jumped 7 feet 4 1/4 inches, broke the world record and won gold. The Fosbury Flop they called it. Now I feel like I’ve witnessed something similar: a crazy Corbyn Flop that seems to work.

Now let’s be clear: although it feels like a victory, Labour haven’t won. No gold medal. No world record. The Tories have the most seats. They remain in Government. We lost. Labour can and must do better. We will need to win Tory voters, and inspire the old, not just the young. For all the success of this campaign, we can still do better on the basics of economic competence and law and order.

But this defeat can be good for Labour if the party can come together. If the Tories are polling above forty then we will need to be united to win. Let the Tories inherit the bitter infighting and leadership coups. For Labour, it is time to reconcile the inspirational and pragmatic: not make them enemies of each other.

Theo Bertram is a former Downing Street adviser

iNews

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